BLESSED MAXIMIN GIRAUD
Visionary of La Salette
(1835-1875)
September 19 was the Feast of the great
Apparition of the Mother of God at La Salette in
the Alps of eastern France. The Prophetess and
Mother of the Latter Times, sent from Heaven,
chose for one of Her auditors a young boy eleven
years old, Blessed Maximin Giraud, who was a
child like all the rest until he saw and heard
the Lady in the circle of light. Later he himself
wrote a description of Her apparition, in a
brochure entitled “My Profession of Faith
concerning the Apparition of Our Lady of La
Salette.” Maximin became a papal guard or zouave
for a certain time, then undertook studies in
medicine, but decided he could do greater good
for souls by remaining at the disposition of
those who were asking him to come and relate his
story, to narrate the remarkable day of 1846 when
he saw and heard “the Lady more brilliant than the light” which surrounded Her.
“If My people refuse to obey,” She said to the
children, “I will be forced to release the hand
of My Son.” By these words She made Herself known
as the Mother of God. Maximin’s account of the
episode is lengthy, but we will reproduce a
portion of it as the best introduction to its
author, who after many trials and hardships,
including extreme poverty, would finally die in
1875, in Corps, France, near the mountain of the
Apparition, which he could see from his window.
With Melanie Calvat, a young shepherdess four
years older than himself, Maximin had taken his
herd to the extreme heights of a mountain near
Corps, in the diocese of Grenoble. After their
lunch the young shepherds went to watch their
animals for a moment, on the far slope of a hill.
Maximin wrote that as they were returning:
“Melanie stopped, her staff fell from her hands.
Frightened, she turned to me and said, ‘Do you
see that great light over there?’ ‘Yes, I see
it,’ I answered; ‘but pick up your staff.’ And
then I brandished mine, threatening, ‘If it
touches me I will give it a good blow!’ This
light, before which that of the sun seemed to
pale, then appeared to open up, and we saw within
it the form of a Lady more brilliant yet. She had
a white headdress, brilliant, silvery, like
transparent gold, high and round at the top,
slightly inclined in front... The features of
Mary were pronounced and Her face heavenly, of an
admirable whiteness and beauty, expressing
gentleness and kindness, and bright with a marvelous light...”
They heard Her voice from more than 50 feet away,
telling them to come forward and not be afraid;
She was there to announce great news to them. The
public message of La Salette foretold
chastisements for France “if Her people did not
cease to profane the Day of the Lord, to take His
Name in vain and mock religion.” All of those
chastisements were realized in the following
years: The potatoes turned to dust, the nuts were
bad, and the grapes spoiled. And worst of all,
little children died in the arms of their parents
of a sickness which caused them to tremble — a sickness never before seen.
Maximin then tells how, when the Lady gave each
of them a secret, the other visionary became deaf
and heard nothing at all. She finally spoke again
to both of them, saying that if the people were
converted, the very stones and rocks would become
wheat, and potatoes would be found sown in the
ground. And She asked them if they said their
prayers well. She had other reproaches to make
for the impiety of the people, and told them to
pass Her message to all Her people. He narrates
that when he talked of this to the lady who
employed Melanie, “My words — a second sun and
the Lady on fire — made her think I had lost my mind.”
The two visionaries did not see each other again
for three months but continued to narrate
individually what they had seen. Maximin, in the
succeeding days and years, was severely
questioned, without ever becoming angry or
revealing his secret to the curious who used
every imaginable means to try to obtain it.
“Aren’t you afraid of forgetting the secret?” he
was asked. “If I forget it, the Blessed Virgin
will be able to make me remember it again,” said
Maximin. “The Lady you saw was just a luminous,
bright cloud.” “But a cloud does not speak,” he
answered. “Sir, people today mock La Salette, but
it is like a flower that in winter we cover with
fertilizer and mud, and which, in the spring or
in summer, comes up again from the ground, more beautiful.”
The history of La Salette and its secrets is not
yet complete. Blessed Melanie published her
Secret in 1858; by it the Blessed Virgin calls
for the Apostles of the Latter Times to assemble,
foretelling great chastisements before a time of
peace can arrive with and through the renewal of the Church.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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